Wednesday, March 24, 2010

AWK Words

About a decade ago, a lot of tame "rock" bands were emerging, and we were told they were "saving" rock. This pissed me off because A. it clearly wasn't anything new and was shitty anyway and B. I was in a punk band at the time and thought that if people thought rock was "dead," their problem was they hadn't heard us! So there we were, stuck with a new breed of "rock" bands who I felt deserved air- or real quotes around their style of music. But then I saw Andrew WK! And he blew those bands out of the water. Look, I know, what bands I'm "supposed" to like to be "cool," but I don't care--WK came out of nowhere with a care-free guitar assault and I was immediately on board. He was combining the spirit of punk rock with the party-it-up attitude of hair metal, without the bullshit solos or costumes.

Andrew's new double-album came out today, and for some reason, he decided to spend it playing an acoustic performance at Newbury Comics in Norwood, Mass, followed by a signing. Knowing a real WK concert would cost $$$, I had to go to this thing tonight, even though I knew I'd barely make it to the 6 PM performance after work.

I got there 15 minutes late (like most things on this planet, this is the fault of the genius who invented the Massachusetts road system) (but also the driving rain). But I got to see a few tunes before he went on to the signing portion of the evening. After waiting about two hours due to a costly mistake on my part in misjudging the positioning of the line, I finally got to meet WK. I thought about asking him to sign my cd in blood, but instead I got a normal signature, a pic, and...a bonus thing where I filmed him doing something which is a surprise. The guy was very friendly, giving each fan as much time as they wanted. He's one of these "goes out of his way to show appreciation" types. aka the good kind of celebrity.

It was odd seeing one of my favorite songs of all-time, "I Get Wet," done acoustically--he kind of hammed it up throughout the songs in acknowledgment of the surreal setting and arrangement. Though the cover he did was this really serious song which he played totally straight. Sorry, I don't know what song it was. End. Pics attached.

Actually, can I just say something? I hate that I'm wearing a collared, button-down shirt in that pic. Or ever. That's what happens when you do something right after work.